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The self-proclaimed "cheap-ass funk straight off the front porch" of North Florida known as MOFRO began in 1998. But it's not that simple, because what MOFRO really boils down to is a lifelong friendship between guitarists, keyboardist, harmonica player, and singer John "JJ" Grey and his silent partner Daryl Hance on slide guitar and dobro.
Daryl Hance :: Jam Cruise 03 by Kayceman |
"We actually met in high school," Grey relates in the same soul drenched voice that has become the MOFRO trademark, "but I didn't really know him until he started work at an air-conditioning contracting company the same day I did. We both started, independently of each other at the same time. He just sort of had his own thing going on mentally as far as I was concerned. He had just started playing the guitar and I liked his attitude, and that's how I looked him up later on, through the records of the company because Daryl left after six months and I stayed for like three or four years. And I just looked him up to find out if he wanted to play guitar, and that's how it all got going."
John "JJ" Grey |
This humble start to both their friendship and their musical relationship (which has lasted more than 15 years) has remained a thread in all that MOFRO is and will become. They are easy to like; they're unassuming, they're real, they've held day jobs built on sweat, and they sure as hell aren't some record company's idea of what will sell. In 2004--where "band" seems synonymous with "image" and every group seems to be trolling for the big-money deal, and buckets of sex--MOFRO is that much easier to saddle up next to.
"I never really dreamed about being anything to be honest with ya," Grey explains. "I'd dream about getting girls, but not as a rock star, just being able to date the girl you wanna date, that kinda crap, like any kid, but I never thought too much about being famous or being big in music." This, like JJ Grey, is MOFRO. He's the kid you played baseball with or went surfing with. He's the guy who walked to school just like you, he worked at the air-conditioning place, he did construction, he learned to play a little guitar, and eventually he and Daryl recorded a few songs about where they call home.
JJ Grey :: Bonnaroo 2004
By Jeremy Jones |
Perhaps even more than the duo of Grey and Hance, MOFRO is an attitude, a disposition, a way of life. MOFRO is a timeless mindset where soul still matters, a place where TV hasn't taken over and family is thick. In many ways MOFRO is Blackwater (2001, Fog City Records) and Lochloosa (2004, Swampland Records), the names of their two albums, and also references to the rural land outside Jacksonville, Florida where Grey grew up, and still resides. "As soon as I see the palmettos, and the palm trees, and the Cyprus trees and the pine trees, and the oak trees, the cedar trees, all those trees together in one place and I know I'm pretty close to home, there ain't too many places around that look like that." This connection to the physical land and his notion of home are critical to Grey. "Some would say that the people aren't up with the times and all that, but that's why I like the place, because they don't really give a damn about what's going on somewhere else, this is their world and that's all they care about, they don't really care about the rest of it. At least the old-timers anyway. As time goes on all that changes and that's why a place looses its regional flavor, because everyone is trying to get down with the flavor of the month on television, whatever culture they create on TV."
He grapples with this both physically in the sacred swamps and stretches of wilderness that are being turned to strip malls and polluted by America's "progress," and mentally as our society kills the family, destroys our independent identities, and forces us into blind submission. "I'm not a fan of too many people telling me how to live and telling me who I am," he says. "That's what TV does every day of the week; it tries to tell you who you are." Like many of us that see a world turning too fast JJ Grey is trying to hold onto a time that is slipping away and this is clearly reflected in the songs he sings.
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Photo by George Weiss |
Homesick but it's alright
Lochloosa is on my mind
She's on my mind
Every mosquito
every rattlesnake
every cane break
everything
Every alligator
every blackwater swamp
every freshwater spring
everything
All we need is one more
damn developer
tearin' her heart out
All we need is one more
Mickey Mouse
another golf course
another country club
another gated community
"Lochloosa" - Title Track
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